"A truly fine lawyer; he's excellent."

Chambers USA 2022

John M. Taladay is a highly esteemed antitrust and competition lawyer with years of experience leading complex antitrust merger, litigation, and cartel investigation matters for clients around the globe. John serves as Chair of the global antitrust practice of Baker Botts, which is ranked top ten among the Global Competition Review (GCR) Elite (2022) competition practices in the world.

“He is equally at home guiding clients through sophisticated merger review proceedings as he is managing cartel and anticompetitive behavior investigations and litigation.”

Chambers USA 2021

Recognized by clients for being "pragmatic" and giving "sound advice that is very attuned to the client's needs." John is recognized among the country's top competition lawyers.

Chambers Global 2019-2022; Legal 500 2023; Expert Guides "Best of the Best" 2022; Super Lawyers 2013-2020

John's merger work includes extensive experience in gaining merger clearances, appearing frequently before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the European Commission and numerous other international agencies. He has managed numerous, complex, multi-jurisdictional deals to conclusion. He has particular industry experience in the technology, media, consumer products, software and pharmaceuticals sectors, as well as traditional industries including automotive, airline, metals, agriculture, food, chemicals and electronics. He has been invited to speak on merger review by competition enforcers, including the OECD Competition Committee and the International Competition Network Mergers Working Group.

"John is reliable and insightful - his ability to balance academic conceptual legal arguments with the real-world business implications was crucial."

Chambers USA 2022

In antitrust litigation matters, he has served as lead counsel to large corporations in numerous class action and private party cases involving all aspects of competition law, including allegations of price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation and unfair trade practices. He is named as one of 18 “Leading Lawyers” in Antitrust Civil Litigation Defense by Legal 500 (2022). Lawdragon named John as one of the 500 Leading Litigators in America (2022). He has served as lead counsel to key defendants in many of the largest multidistrict class actions filed over the past 20 years, including In Re Generic Pharmaceutical Price Fixing, In Re Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing, In Re Air Cargo Price Fixing, In Re Cathode Ray Tube Price Fixing and others.

John has also led the defense of U.S. and foreign companies, and individuals, in dozens of major cartel matters. These include DOJ and grand jury investigations into criminal allegations of price fixing, bid‐rigging, market allocation, “no-poach” and wage fixing, and related offenses. He has extensive experience having navigated corporate clients through a range of cartel representation strategies including steadfast defense, leniency, non‐prosecution and deferred prosecution treatment. Both Chambers USA (2021-2022) and Legal 500 (2022) have named him as one of the 20 “Leading Lawyers” in Cartel Defense in the United States. He has written extensively on the issues of cartel defense and leniency and issues relating to “no poach” and wage fixing investigations.

"Incredibly smart and an authoritative voice when it comes to antitrust. He is very effective before regulators and very technical, but able to the distill the content in an understandable way."

Chambers USA 2018

John's leadership in international competition matters and policy development spans more than two decades. He serves as Chair of the Business at OECD (BIAC) Competition Committee to the OECD. He is the immediate past Chair of the United States Council for International Business Competition Committee. He has been appointed as a Non‐Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network for more than 15 years. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Global Private Litigation Committee of the ABA Antitrust Law Section and as a member of the ICC Commission on Competition.

“He is a fierce advocate on behalf of the client and I trust him to deliver results on important litigation.”

Chambers USA 2022